Sharpen your spelling and word finding abilities with the addicting challenge Word Wars! Race against the clock (90 seconds) to find as many words that you can connect in the given word array. Earn points for words. You can click on the letters to form the words or spell the words using your keyboard.

In the Classroom

Introduce Word Wars on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use as a reward time activity for a whole class, teams, or individuals. After introducing, use at centers. Add to your website for spelling practice. For older students have them create their own Word War arrays using vocabulary or spelling words.

See spectacular Drone views of many different locations by clicking on a circle or pin on the Google interactive map. The circles will have a number for how many different views of the area are provided. Search for specific cities, select editors' choices, or see the "Latest" drone footage. As with any Google map there are the usual navigation tools. To see if the area you want to view has footage, scroll through the map. The Drone footage is hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This site is continually adding new places to see. If you don't find what you want, check back frequently. Make geography come to life by showing students WHERE a story or news event takes place. Share the videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this tool to explore how it looks in the country or city studied in world cultures (or languages). Explore geography concepts, historical locations, famous battle locations, and more. Students creating a multimedia presentation with a setting can look at Travel By Drone to see if there is footage they can use.

Find simple descriptions of the main Roman gods, goddesses, and monsters. Learn the origins of the names of the months and weekdays. Find activities for designing a Roman mosaic and two board games the Romans played.

In the Classroom

Use this site as a reference for students studying world history and ancient religions. It is also an excellent introduction to a unit on the Romans for young learners. Put a link to this site on a classroom computer as an activity center for the Roman unit of study. Assign student pairs, or small groups, a topic (god or myths about that god). Have students create a multimedia presentation using UtellStory, reviewed here. This tool allows narrating and adding text to a picture. Challenge students to find a Creative Commons photo or image, and then narrate the photo as if it is a news report about the god's life. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try PhotoPin, reviewed here.

Discover some of the world's best online courses with SlideRule's search engine. Enter what you want to learn into the search bar. Explore the offerings provided or browse by subject, university, or providers. Narrow results down by starting date, teaching method, or credentials. Each entry includes a short description of the course, fees (many are free!), start dates, length of course, and skill level required. Many classes also include reviews from other SlideRule users. Click the "Enroll" link to go directly to the course or save to your wish list after creating a free account. Some of the videos are hosted on YouTube. Most do not require Flash. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share SlideRule with your gifted students as a resource for finding enrichment resources or content not taught by your school. Search for and share free courses for all students to use for review of any topic. Use the SlideRule search engine to find professional development courses for your own personal use.

Get explicit feedback for any video you want to share with others. Comment Bubble has a feedback feature that allows viewers to react to your video using five "Quick Comment" colored buttons (without pausing the video). Type in the information you want to know on the button. Viewers click on that button when they see it in the video. Viewers can also comment via text, audio, or video. Share the video with the URL provided or make it public for anyone to see. Comment Bubble will record and graph where in the video the audience reacted. See viewers' names with each comment. The demo video is hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, it may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Introduce Comment Bubble on an interactive whiteboard or projector with a video you have prepared. It could be a video you use in conjunction with your lesson or a video of you actually giving the lesson. Show students how they can click on the Quick Comment buttons and also make text or verbal comments. Use Comment Bubble for flipping your class lectures. Have buttons for students to click when things are unclear or when they strongly disagree. Record student presentations and upload for self-evaluation or peer and teacher comments and questions. Use this tool for formative assessment. ESL/ELL and resource teachers could record students reading or conversing with a group and create a Comment Bubble for the students to self score their activity.

Meet Science and Common Core English Language Arts standards using these seven ready-made project plans. Study biomes, the life cycle of a butterfly, the solar system, animals, and famous inventors. While learning about the famous inventors, also learn the value of scientific thinking! Build thinking skills with the challenging culmination piece. These range from creating riddles to creating brochures and journals. All units include step by step directions, Science Content Standards (NSES), ELA Common Core Anchor Standards, and NETS. In addition, there is a list of resources to use and a suggestion for assessment. You MUST register to view the lessons. To register simply give your name and email, and download all seven of these units for free!This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Immerse students in hands-on, inquiry projects with these seven plans. Introduce them on your interactive whiteboard or projector and select a class project to complete. Have student groups choose a topic to research. Created for grades 1 to 5, with one for 5-8, any of the plans could be adjusted to fit any of these grade levels. The science kit lesson plans are free, and so are some of the resources they suggest using, such as Pics4Learning, reviewed here. However, the Pixie and Wixie program that the lesson advises using is not free. Instead, use QwikSlides, reviewed here, or RawShorts, reviewed here. Be sure to bookmark these units for future use.

This very simple but engaging site allows young children to select a letter of the alphabet, then view a video to learn about the letter. Choose any letter to view the video with characters providing letter sounds and providing words beginning with the letter. The videos are hosted on YouTube. They do not require Flash. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce each letter of the alphabet. Share the videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use these videos for your "letter of the day" activities. Be sure to include a link to videos on your class web page for viewing at home. Share a link with parents as a resource for learning letters at home. This site is perfect for use with ESL/ELL learners as an introduction to the alphabet and letter sounds.

Give Me Sport is an online magazine offering the most current sports news, opinions, videos, and more. Choose specific sports categories or view articles by what is trending and the latest news. Find more global sports information by choosing to view the UK version instead of the US version of the magazine (use the drop down box at the top of the page). This site contains options for comments on all articles that are not moderated. Be sure to preview comments before sharing with students.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Offer Give Me Sport as an alternative to reluctant readers for independent reading. Challenge students to find articles and then research additional information for writing projects or biography reports. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook featuring a sports personality.

Protect your email address and reduce spam with Scrim. Scrim converts your email address into a short, safe link for sharing on Twitter, forums, or any public site. Enter your email and add a unique ending to the Scrim URL to receive your unique code. Copy and paste the code for use on social networking sites, documents, or forums.This site includes advertising.

Are you feeling stressed? Unable to concentrate or complete a task? This tool will generate background sounds to create a positive thinking environment! Choose from a variety of sounds that sooth and relax while promoting creative productivity. These sounds are much better than plain, white noise. Classic sounds for relaxation include thunder, rain, waves, summer night, forest, white noise, and more. Use the slider bar at the top of the page to adjust sound levels as needed.

In the Classroom

Be sure to share this link with students (and their parents) looking for less distracting sounds while brainstorming or working. Does your class have silent reading time, or are you reading a book to the class or conducting a science lab? Turn up your speakers and use a background sound as mood music to set the stage for your story. Use the sounds during creative writing exercises. Why not listen to waves or water while studying them?! Play a few minutes of relaxing sounds before a major test. Consider using as background sounds for student presentations. If you talk with students about discovering their own learning styles, offer this site as a suggestion for them to try while prewriting or studying for tests. Emotional support (and autistic support) teachers may want to experiment to see if these sounds can help their students. Some students may find them over stimulating while others may find the sounds very helpful.

Becoming a Common Core Ninja is a free e-book that offers advice for mastering Common Core Standards. There are three chapters: New Standards, New Challenges, Creating a C.O.R.E. Classroom, and C.O.R.E Classrooms in Practice. The e-book also features many excellent templates for use in Common Core classrooms (pages 21-25).

In the Classroom

Use Becoming a Common Core Ninja as part of your ongoing professional development with Common Core Standards. Enlist other teachers to download the book and discuss by chapters as part of a book club. Share information from this book with coworkers and administrators as you work toward understanding and teaching Common Core Standards.

Sound Infusion is part of a larger site about world cultures, Cultural Infusion. Use the menu on the right to learn about cultural information. Listen to sound loops of instruments from different cultures, compose music from those sound loops, and get a manual for using the program. By clicking on Cultural Information, you can select a country and find out about the geography and topography, history, performing arts, and other interesting facts. For performing arts, you will learn about dance and musical instruments and watch videos about both. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start your study of any country or culture. This site is excellent for enrichment. Include it on your class website for students to access both in and out of class. ESL and ELL students will be proud to make presentations about their country of origin using this site as backup and illustration. Be sure to ask them to compose music from the music loops and share with the class. Have individuals or partners create music for the country they are researching and make it into a podcast using Spreaker, reviewed here, to share with their friends and family. Share this site with world language classes as a general resource for cultural information.

30 Hands offers both social learning and a Learning Management System. They call it a learning studio. Use this tool to present all your lessons and store all the materials you will use for the lesson. In order to see all 30 Hands offers, click on "Take the Tour." Sign up for this tool with your email and create a course. Be sure to look on the right menu to find the course code to give to students when they sign up. In the creation of your course, you can include presentations, videos, assignments, a blog, student portfolios, surveys, discussion forums, groups within a class roster, and more. There are plenty of step by step directions for every aspect of setting up your course. Students can access 30 Hands on any device.

In the Classroom

Once you create the course you will have access to a home page that can include multimedia. Your courses can also include a calendar, digital bookshelves to organize content, a presentation showcase, a timeline and forum for discussions, a blog for students, student portfolios, small group collaboration, and interactive assignments. This tool can easily be your classroom online!

Slides is a superb site to create and share powerful presentations. Edit and store your slides presentations online. Presentations are viewable on desktops and mobile devices. Slides uses html5 to accommodate iOS. Sharing slides is a cinch with all the features offered to creators, and this site accommodates your presentation preferences. Send a Slides presentation through email, print as a .pdf, present offline, or sync with your DropBox account (reviewed here). Collaborate with a teammate or keep your work secure and private. Custom CSS is available for your own themes or tweak slides templates provided for your convenience. Slides offers other fantastic features such as math formulas to insert in your presentations as well as a revision history. The many style options make slides a slick site to create presentations. Premium options are available for purchase. However, this review only highlights the free features of the site.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use slides to support presentations in the classroom. Challenge your writers to create short stories that include their artwork, and publish with slides. Search for Creative Commons licensed images related to classroom content using Compfight reviewed here to create a slideshow. Slides is a great resource for your BYOD classroom. Create supporting presentations for lessons and take advantage of the math formula feature. Encourage students to create presentations to support book talks and share them on a library website. Slides is your collaboration destination for students to work together on assignments.

Revise your writing using After the Deadline's grammar checker. At this simple demonstration you copy and paste any text or document into the box. Click on "Check Writing" to receive feedback. The site provides color-coded suggestions for revisions in spelling, grammar, or style. If you like After the Deadline, they offer an add-on for the Firefox web browser and an extension for the Google Chrome web browser. There are also plug-ins for self-hosted WordPress blogs and forums.

In the Classroom

Use this visual revision program with your students who are ready to refine and improve their writing. After the Deadline is a wonderful program to use for revision after self-editing of grammar and mechanics is complete. Put the URL on your website for students and parents to use from home. Remind seniors to use it for their college essays. Use this tool to polish your professional writing, parent newsletters, blog posts, and papers for grad classes!

Create random groups quickly with the Group Maker Tool. Click "Create a Group Now" to begin and follow prompts to set up your groups. You will need to provide an email and create a password for your group. Add up to 100 names to your class list. Choose the number of groups to make. You can even choose to make pairs!

In the Classroom

Although a bit awkward and slow to get started, this tool is helpful for creating random groups for many purposes. It is best to create your class list ahead of time then you can easily create groups anytime on the fly! Use this tool to create groups for cooperative learning, class plays, presentations, computer centers, field trips, and much more.

Create a story using your own pictures. You may upload up to twenty photos. Choose photos from your computer (simply drag and drop) or a Dropbox file. Learn more about Dropbox
here. Enter the text and description to each photo and change the font color, if desired. Click the lock below the last picture to change your story from public to private (or back again). Click done to finish the story. Easily edit and view all of your stories and even share via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or email. Click embed to get the code to share on a wiki, blog, or website. Viewers of the story can like, comment, or share. You are allowed 50 characters for the title and 240 characters for the description. Note: This is a public site. Be sure to look for appropriate examples of stories created by others.

In the Classroom

Decide whether to share student created stories with the public or make them private depending upon the content, parent permission, and school guidelines. Use this tool to create simple projects using images to tell the story. Use to show the story of an invention that resulted from a scientific discovery or law. Share the many things made from a particular element. In English, create a visual story and create titles for a cover photo or practice using adjectives or adverbs. Create a photo story for history, showcasing great people or specific historical events such as significant battles in World War II. In the arts, create a photo story of achievements of various artists. Students can take pictures of the process of the creations they make and write a "how to" photo story inspired by the images. Students can swap files of photos, using one another's pictures to create a photo story that comes to mind!

PushPage is an interesting way to learn about your friends and celebrities using a question and answer format. Explore the site to discover fascinating interviews with actors, chefs, politicians, and others. There are also interviews with everyday users, such as yourself! Learn about favorite songs, snacks, and favorite causes. Get involved and create your own PushPage. Sign up and begin your interview, so others learn about your interests. Share the page with the world or use privacy settings to only share with select friends or a private group. Ask your own questions of your community to create and personalize your sharing experience. PushPage will also work on your iPhone.

In the Classroom

Incorporate PushPage into math data analysis lessons. Have students explore a question and collect answers from several pages and then graph the results. For example, one question asks "Where is the favorite place you have traveled to?" Follow that question to explore all of the different answers (including images). Have students choose one location to investigate further. Create PushPages for members of any classroom, sports group, or social organization as a way to get to know each other and build team work. Have students create their own question for the PushPage community and collect and analyze results. Students can research their favorite celebrity and write up a biography, practicing putting the information in their own words.

Looking for an easy to use way to take a screenshot in Windows? Look no further! Download this tool. Once installed, a button appears along the top in your toolbar (look for the red "d"). When you wish to take a screenshot of something, click on the "d" button, then "Make new selection." Use your mouse to highlight the portion on your screen. Choose from one of the saving options available in a pop-up window: Save to dowce, save to the clipboard, or save to your computer. Note: This is for Windows computer only. Mac users can easily take a screenshot by holding down the Command-Shift-4 buttons then using the mouse to drag the cross hair over the items to be saved as a screenshot.

In the Classroom

Use this tool to copy items to share on your blog or site. Use to copy graphs, images, specific text, or other items useful to share either with your students or with colleagues. Remember to follow copyright and always cite your source when sharing the item in the screenshot.

Learn how to touch type or increase your touch typing speed and accuracy with this handy resource! You can practice with NO registration. But if you want to keep track of your progress, registration is suggested. You can sign up with your email or Google or Facebook account. Use the cloud to store your results. This enables use of this tool anywhere, anytime. There is a thorough slide tutorial when first arriving at the site. You can find it again under the Help section. The tutorial explains how the lessons are set up, what you will see on your screen, and what each feature does. You do not have to register to use this site, only to track your progress.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Everyone will benefit by learning to type faster. Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students practice their touch typing independently. No need to have them sign up. They will see their speed and errors at the end of each list given to them. That information will accumulate for as long as they continue the practice. They could keep their results in a word document or a Google Doc. For more about Google Docs and Templates see the review here. Be sure to watch and see that students are using the proper touch typing position (no two finger typing!). Share this site with your students who are struggling with writing. Offer students the opportunity to learn to type in addition to write!